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N is for Nut roast

I realised that I’ve not been particularly vegetarian-friendly in the blog thus far, and as a fan of some veggie food, I felt the need to correct this. The weather has started to get cooler as Autumn draws in, so I’m craving more warming, hearty meals. So this week, we have my take on a nut roast. Depending on how hungry you are it serves up to 6 people, with a side of steamed veg, roast potatoes (is there a better way to cook potatoes?) and freshly made tomato-based sauce.

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, grated

2 beetroot (pre-cooked from a vac-pac on the veg aisle) grated

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

115g chestnut mushrooms – finely sliced

175g cooked brown rice

115g brown breadcrumbs

55g finely chopped almonds

55g finely chopped Brazil nuts

115g grated Cheddar cheese

2 medium eggs

1tbsp fresh oregano

1tbsp basil

1tbsp salt

1tbsp pepper

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a large loaf tin or another deep baking dish.

In a large frying pan, melt a knob of butter of drizzle with a dribble of oil (sunflower will do – nothing fancy) to stop the butter burning. Gently fry the onion, garlic, carrots, beetroot for 5 minutes until everything is softened. Then add the mushrooms and continue to fry on a medium heat for another 10 minutes or so until the mushrooms have reduced in size and softened.

Whilst the veg are frying, boil the brown rice in a large pan until cooked (usually takes about 15 minutes). Drain the rice and then stir in the onion and veg mix to the pan along with the breadcrumbs, ground nuts, cheddar, eggs, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.

Transfer the mixture to the greased baking dish and cook for 45 minutes – 1 hour until well cooked on top.